How owner of hotel in quaint rural village uncovered a ‘bloodbath’ as cannibal killer growled ‘there’s no girl here’
“HE’S actually eating her,” were some of the only words hotelier Mandy Miles could manage after walking in on the bloodbath in room seven of her hotel.
Drenched in blood and crouching over 22-year-old Cerys Yemm’s body was drug-crazed Matthew Williams, who had launched a demonic attack where he “chewed” on her face and tore out her left eyeball.
Alerted by her guests, Mandy heard screaming from the room of the hotel-turned-halfway house she owned in Argoed, a quaint South Wales village, and was forced to unlock the door to investigate.
She was met with the grisly scene of Williams, 34, attacking shop worker Cerys with what she believed to be a screwdriver.
When asked “do you know what you’re doing to that girl?”, he replied, chillingly: “That’s no girl.”
Williams was staying at the half-way house hostel after being freed from jail just two weeks before the killing.
Cerys and Williams had met shortly before the November 2014 murder while on a night out in nearby town Blackwood, and then met up again on the evening of November 5.
Williams lured unsuspecting Cerys back to his room at the Sirhowy Arms Hotel where he had been placed by the local authority following his prison release.
He was a prolific offender with 26 convictions for 78 offences, 41 stints in juvenile custody and 14 adult jail terms.
Williams had also been a prolific user of drugs, including cannabis and amphetamines, since he was a teenager and reportedly suffered from schizophrenia.
Just two days before killing Cerys, Williams told his mum that “the voices were back” and he was feeling paranoid.
Williams’ friend drove to Cerys’ home on the evening of November 5 to pick her up after they had initially connected a few nights prior.
The last words
The three went on another night out in Blackwood before returning to the friend’s home to “smoke cannabis and drink lager”, an inquest heard.
It was around 11:30pm that Cerys left with Williams to go to the halfway house, arriving around midnight.
What unfolded in the following two hours was like a scene from a “horror movie”, witnesses recalled.
Cerys had told her mum, Paula, that she would be home by 11.30pm.
When she hadn’t returned by that time, Paula dropped her daughter a message at 12:15am to challenge her whereabouts.
Cerys replied that she was “close by, in the lanes”. This was the last time she would ever speak to her mum.
‘He’s actually eating her’
Nearby residents heard screaming from Williams’ room at 1:07am, prompting Mandy to investigate – then the horror began to unfold.
After finding Williams hunched over Cerys and covered in blood, Mandy tried to communicate with the killer but quickly realised she needed to close the door and call the police.
“He’s actually eating her,” she told the 999 operator, an inquest heard three years after the attack.
He’s actually eating her. It’s awful. His name is Matthew Williams and he’s in room seven. There was screaming and screaming.
Mandy Miles
“It’s awful. His name is Matthew Williams and he’s in room seven. There was screaming and screaming. Oh my God. It’s awful. I went into the room and he’s killed her. Oh my God. Is this real?”
Home Office pathologist Richard Jones identified 24 separate “areas” of injury on Cerys’ body which included “at least” 89 separate injuries.
He said there were injuries to the eyes, including the removal of the left eye, nose, ears and mouth, which would’ve led to unconsciousness.
Possessed perpetrator
Police arrived shortly after Mandy’s 999 call and officers told the inquest jury they had feared for their lives when confronting Williams.
PC Alan Cotterell said he had “never been more scared” and was convinced that had his Taser not worked when he fired it, Williams would have killed him too.
Despite being handcuffed, his legs strapped, and four officers holding him down, Williams still tried to get up, said PC Cotterell.
He was tasered four times in seven minutes by police, who recalled him looking “possessed” throughout the ordeal.
He was red and black… There was blood dripping from his mouth.
Mandy Miles
Furthermore, a toxicology report found that Williams had 1.7 milligrams per litre of amphetamine, a stimulant drug, in his blood.
Williams had also had cannabis and alcohol on the night of the murder.
He had a cardiac arrest and later died after losing consciousness as he was carried to the ambulance, triggered by the drugs and the fight he put up during the arrest.
The inquest heard that he had bitten Cerys around four times and Mandy, then 50, told the the hearing: “He was red and black. He didn’t have a clue what he was doing.
“[My son] said to him, ‘That’s a girl there’. Matthew said, ‘That’s no girl’. He put his head straight back down on her.
“There was blood dripping from his mouth.
“He wasn’t himself. He couldn’t have been otherwise he wouldn’t have done it.”
‘He should’ve been in jail’
The inquest into Cerys’ death in April 2017 heard that due to delays and errors in two criminal investigations, prosecutions against Williams did not proceed in 2014.
This meant he was free to attack the 22-year-old when he might have otherwise been in custody.
Her family released a statement after the inquest, saying: “We want to pay tribute to our beautiful daughter Cerys, who was kind, caring, and could always see the best in people.
WHERE CAN I GET HELP?
You don’t have to suffer in silence.
If you are experiencing domestic violence or someone you know is there are groups that can help.
Refuge runs a free, 24-hour helpline on 0808 2000 247.
You can also visit the website or contact Women’s Aid.
“We have been searching for the answers to our questions as to how her murder, which has so devastated our family, could take place in the heart of our community.
“And why the agencies responsible for protecting the public from violent offenders could not prevent this awful event from occurring.
“We will never know whether more timely intervention by the Police might have saved Cerys’ life that night.
“It was distressing to hear that, when fellow residents were asking to go into Williams’ room to protect her, there was confusion in the Police Control Room.”
It was also found that Williams had refused to engage with the probation service in the two weeks between his release from prison and his fatal attack on Cerys.
But because he had completed his 27-month sentence, probation officers had no power to compel him to keep in touch with them.